Daphne Forster left Welches last April to be with family in North Carolina. Her mother was ailing and Forster needed to regroup. After years of bartending, snowboarding and traveling, she had decided to become an esthetician.

But her dream dissolved with her tragic death earlier this month. Her badly burned body was found next to a road near Siler City, N.C., on Oct. 10. Police identified her remains eight days later. On Tuesday, two Chapel Hill residents -- Brian Keith Whitfield, 24 and Caleb Shaddie Wyland, 25 -- were arrested and charged with aggravated murder.

Her father, Jerry Forster, said their arrest has brought some relief to the agony of a daughter's death.

"Nothing compares to the loss of a child," he said.

Daphne Forster, dead at 38, is remembered by her family and friends as a loving, free spirit, full of spunk and zest.

"She was a lot of fun to have behind the bar," said Allen Bixby, manager of The Shack in Welches where Forster last worked. "She engaged the guests."

Even as a kid, Forster was a people person, her father said.

"Everyone loved Daphne since she was little," he said. "She had a great sense of humor; she was always happy."

She grew up in Albany and graduated from South Albany High School in 1992. Her father, a retired aerospace engineer, urged her to go into the military. She enlisted in the Navy and worked as an airman in Virginia. She left the Navy in 1994 with a National Defense Service Medal.

Brian Whitfield and Caleb WylandChatham County Sheriff's Office

In the service, she married a boyfriend from Albany, Raymond Carl Kath III. Forster was convicted in 1996 and 1998 of theft. Kath has a long criminal record and is currently wanted on a drug charge. In 2000, they divorced.

Forster entered Mount Hood Community College in fall 1999, working toward an associate's degree in hospitality and tourism management. School records show she left school in summer 2004.

She worked at a number of restaurants and bars in the Portland area over the years, including the Olive Garden and Pal Joey's in Gresham, Bossanova Ballroom on East Burnside in Portland and My Father's Place in Southeast Portland.

She also traveled, visiting Thailand, Costa Rica, Mexico, South America and Canada with friends. For a time, she lived in California. She also worked at the Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado.

"Daphne did what she wanted to do," said Jerry Forster. "She was a free spirit. She was very adventurous. She had an itch but didn't know where to scratch."

She was an accomplished snowboarder and skateboarder and loved the outdoors.

But last winter she seemed to be losing her way, with her partying affecting her work, said Kim Perry, owner of The Shack.

She said she had to let Forster go.

"She went back home to try to get herself together," Perry said. "She needed to regroup. That's why this is so sad."

She lived with her mother in Siler City and stayed as well with an older sister, Andrea Smith, who lives nearby. Forster also left a half sister, Cynthia Miller, of Keizer.

The family plans a memorial service in North Carolina next month and then her father, who lives in Albany, will bring her ashes home.